Mommy’s Groove

Eyes bright with wonder and excitement, my daughter looks to me to explain to her the many contradictions of the Christmas season. She doesn’t describe them to me that way, but they feel that way coming out of my mouth. At the heart of it is my on-going concern — that my kids will take for granted their good fortune, now and all year.

Opening today, the first door on the Advent Calendar, a long-held Christian tradition, the dichotomy was made clear. First, the calendar has Santa on it — although this one was a gift — it’s very hard to find a calendar with traditional Christian imagery. We count ourselves part of the Christian tradition and want to teach our kids about the spirit of Christmas in the religious sense, but struggle with our own joy of the pagan-consumer side of the season. And today, on the first day of the annual count-down the Christmas, we’re already landing squarely on the commercial side of the season!

I’ll combat this by getting out our Christmas story of the birth of Jesus and talk with the kids about why we celebrate this happy occasion over 2000 years later. Kate is fascinated with the story, the idea of Jesus being a spirit who lives in us and she makes up rules Jesus might be credited with. She gets the idea that there is something bigger that us which can guide the way we live, the way we treat one another and give meaning to our earthly experiences.

But then there’s Santa that jolly old elf. Yesterday I saw his likeness used to sell Harry Rosen as a destination of choice for holiday shoppers. We raise his spirit in fun to bring cheer to the holiday season with songs and T.V. specials  The mythology in turn helps to reign in unruly behaviour — already at 4 Kate knows “you better not pout, you better not cry” and repeats it to her younger brother. The magic of Mr. Claus’ mystery is almost Holy in our modern culture and I cannot bear the idea of undermining that magic for any child. We all need more joy and mystery in our lives. Perferably together.

So amidst the shopping for presents, excitement of holiday baking for friends and family, and the magical visit with Santa to soak up his Christmas spirit, I will also be taking my kids to our United Church. They will bring white gifts for under-privileged kids every Sunday, rush to the front of the church to hear the children’s story and colour crayon likenesses of the baby for whom the whoopla began. And I will support them both.

I will tell the kids about the families who gets financial support from us for their HIV/AIDS medication through Keep A Child Alive as part of our Christmas gift to the world. I will help them give gifts through the church to children who don’t have as much as we do. I will tell them the traditional Christmas story and talk about what the story teaches us about giving, loving unconditionally and celebrating true joy when it is seen. I will also send them with wonder and light to visit Santa at the Zoo, armed with their Christmas gift wish. I’ll buy them fun, fashionable and practical gifts to tell them in another way the joy they bring to us. And I will love watching them unwrap their gifts, and then turn with childhood delight to the Christmas-day visit with their cousins and Uncle Chris.

My hope is that in all the mixed-messages the commercial-season dishes, the valuable ones will remain long after the wrapping has been recycled: knowing and sharing unconditional love, giving without expectation, celebrating joy and being with family are our values at this time of year and always. And the Ho, Ho, Ho! is the magic of being a child which every child deserves.

Treat yourself and each other well, I’ll talk about the seasonal craziness in all of us another day! Cheers!

This entry was posted on Friday, December 1st, 2006 at 9:18 am and is filed under Consumerism, Recent Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.